A disk drive comprises a recording medium, spinning means, a head supporting device having a support arm disposed in a rotatable manner about a bearing unit in a radial direction as well as a perpendicular direction to a writing surface of the recording medium, and rotating means for rotating the support arm in the radial direction of the recording medium. A shape of the housing is defined based on a first straight line tangent to both an outermost rim of the rotating means and an outer periphery of the recording medium, and according to a quadrilateral comprised of the first straight line, a second straight line tangent to the outer periphery of the recording medium and perpendicular to the first straight line, a third straight line tangent to the outermost rim of the rotating means and perpendicular to the first straight line, and a fourth straight line tangent to the outer periphery of the recording medium and parallel with the first straight line, thereby realizing the disk drive that is compatible in external size with memory cards.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A disk drive comprising: a spinnably supported recording medium; spinning means for spinning said recording medium; a head supporting device provided with a support arm and a head mounted to an underside surface at one end of said support arm, said support arm disposed in a rotatable manner about a bearing unit in any of a radial direction of said recording medium and a perpendicular direction to a writing surface of said recording medium, said head supporting device further having first resilient means for impressing a thrusting force on said support arm in a direction toward said recording medium and second resilient means for turning said support arm in a direction away from the writing surface of said recording medium; first rotating means for rotating said support arm in the radial direction of said recording medium; second rotating means for thrusting said support arm in a manner to turn said support arm in the perpendicular direction with respect to the writing surface of said recording medium; and control means electrically in connection with said head, said spinning means, said first rotating means and said second rotating means, for exchanging a signal with said head, for controlling spinning of said recording medium, and for controlling rotation of said support arm; wherein said bearing unit of said head supporting device is provided with a pivot pedestal having a pair of bosses disposed in a manner to contact with said support arm, and said support arm is disposed rotatably in the perpendicular direction to the writing surface about a fulcrum served by points where said bosses on said pivot pedestal abut upon said support arm.
2. The disk drive as set forth claim 1 , wherein said second rotating means turns said support arm in the direction away from the writing surface of said recording medium to separate said head from said recording medium when said recording medium stops spinning.
3. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising a housing containing therein said recording medium, said spinning means, said head supporting device and said control means, wherein said housing has an exterior thickness which ranges from 2.1 mm to 3.3 mm.
4. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said first resilient means of said head supporting device comprises a plate spring disposed between said bearing unit and said support arm.
5. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said second resilient means of said head supporting device comprises a plate spring depressing another end of said support arm downward in a direction to said recording medium.
6. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said pair of bosses provided on said pivot pedestal of said head supporting device are arranged to abut on said support arm on a line perpendicular to both an axial direction of said bearing unit and a longitudinal direction of said support arm, said line traversing a rotational enter of said bearing unit in the radial direction of said recording medium.
7. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said bosses on said pivot pedestal of said head supporting device are each arranged to positions symmetrical to each other with respect to a centerline in the longitudinal direction of said support arm.
8. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said head of said head supporting device is retained by a slider disposed to said support arm.
9. The disk drive as set forth in claim 8 further comprising a gimbals mechanism disposed to said support arm of said head supporting device for supporting said slider freely movably in any of a rolling direction and a pitching direction.
10. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said first rotating means of said head supporting device comprises a voice coil motor formed on said support arm.
11. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said second rotating means of said head supporting device comprises a solenoid.
12. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein a center of gravity of a portion of said head supporting device held by said first resilient means is generally coincident with a point of intersection between a rotational axis of said support arm in the radial direction of said recording medium and another rotational axis in the perpendicular direction to the writing surface of said recording medium.
13. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said recording medium is discoidal in shape, not provided with a through hole in the center, and has a recording layer formed on only one of surfaces thereof.
14. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said recording medium is discoidal in shape, not provided with a through hole in the center, has a recording layer formed on only one of surfaces thereof, and a shaft provided in the center of the other surface, said shaft pivotally fitted in a hub of said spinning means.
15. The disk drive as set forth in claim 14 , wherein a permanent magnet is disposed around said shaft on the same surface as said shaft in a manner to face a stator of said spinning means.
16. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein an external shape of said housing measures approximately 2.1 mm in thickness.
17. The disk drive as set forth in claim 16 having a storage capacity of at least 1 Gigabyte.
18. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein an external shape of said housing is compatible in dimensions with SD memory card.
19. The disk drive as set forth in claim 1 , wherein an external shape of said housing measures approximately 24 mm in width and approximately 32 mm in length.
20. The disk drive as set forth in claim 19 having a storage capacity of at least 1 Gigabyte.
21. A disk drive for use with a recording medium, comprising: a head supporting device provided with a support arm and a head mounted to said support arm, said support arm rotatable: about a bearing unit having an axis perpendicular to a plane along a recording surface of said disk; and towards and away from said recording surface so that said head moves along a path which intersects said recording surface; a first source of force for impressing thrusting force on said support arm toward said recording medium; a second source of force for turning said support arm away from the recording medium; a first rotation unit for rotating said support arm about said axis perpendicular to said plane; and a second rotation unit for moving said support arm along said path, wherein said bearing unit of said head supporting device is provided with a pivot pedestal having a pair of bosses disposed in a manner to contact with said support arm, and said support arm is disposed rotatably in the perpendicular direction to the recording surface about a fulcrum served by points where said bosses on said pivot pedestal abut upon said support arm.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
March 1, 2002
November 30, 2004
Browse 5M+ US patents with plain-English claim translations and AI-generated analysis.